LA Theatre Works 'Life of Galileo' Oct.17-21, Radio Recorded

Straight from London's National Theatre to L.A. Theatre Works, Stacy Keach and Julian Sands star in the American Premiere of David Hare's streamlined version of Bertolt Brecht's The Life of Galileo.  LATW opens its 2007-08 season with five performances at the Skirball Cultural Center, October 17-21, each recorded to air on LATW's nationally-syndicated weekly radio theater series, "The Play's The Thing."

The Life of Galileo, Brecht's masterpiece about the conflict between reason and faith, will be recorded to air as part of the Relativity science series, created by a major grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation.  On the first Saturday of each month, "The Play's the Thing" broadcasts a science-themed play as part of this new series.

Also included in the cast, directed by Martin Jarvis, are stage and screen veterans Kenneth Danziger, Jeannie Elias, Jill Gascoine, Christopher Neame, Moira Quirk, Darren Richardson, Alan Shearman, W. Morgan Sheppard, Simon Templeman, Douglas Weston and Matthew Wolf.

"Unrelenting in his search for 'simple truth,' Galileo's astonishing proof that the earth moves around the sun shatters a belief held sacred for two thousand years.  But, under threat of torture by the Holy Inquisition, his scientific and personal integrity are put to the test, as he argues for his very life in a passionate debate over science, politics, religion and ethics that resonates to this day," declare press notes, "Brecht's play about the founder of modern science, written on the brink of World War II, questions whether the scientist should be subservient to the State, allowing it to use scientific knowledge for its own questionable purposes."

Five performances of The Life of Galileo take place Wednesday, October 17 at 8PM; Thursday, October 18 at 8PM; Friday, October 19 at 8PM; Saturday, October 20 at 3PM; and Sunday, October 21 at 4PM.

The Skirball Cultural Center is located at 2701 N. Sepulveda Boulevard, in the Santa Monica Mountains just off the San Diego (405) Freeway (exit Skirball Center Drive).  Tickets range from $20-$47.  For reservations and information, call the L.A. Theatre Works Box Office at (310) 827-0889 or go to www.latw.org.  

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